


Lullabies

by enmudecer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22030204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmudecer/pseuds/enmudecer
Summary: Padme contemplates her relationship with Anakin as they lay together.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86





	Lullabies

**Author's Note:**

> Heyy this is a secret Santa gift

The bedroom was tinted by the blue glow of the sleeping city. Well as asleep as Corsuant got. It was soon to be twilight, the type of hour where one lost track if it was night or morning. Padme lay curled on her side facing her sleeping husband, soaking in his warmth. His heavy arm draped over the dip of her waist his leg over hers posessively caging her in. The nights he was in her arms were few and far between, and they both tried to enjoy the little time they had. When they were apart, there was a rift in her very soul that would not go away until he was back in the safety of her arms. But, lately she had begun to long for him even when he was with her.

The change was so gradual that once she realized it had occurred, it was a shock. It was like she had fallen into bed in warm summer night only to awake to a snow-covered morning. With each rare encounter she had with her beloved, the more it seemed he was being chipped away at. The war was dragging out longer than any of them had expected. She could only guess the weight he was slowly being crushed under. She was feeling the burden as well with long nights at the senate fighting never ending verbal battles. But, her dear Ani was fighting real ones and she only had some idea of the carnage he witnessed. All she wanted with each visit they managed to arrange was to relearn who her husband was, but he always seemed to push her away, not physically, of course, in fact quite the opposite. He had increased displays of affection when he managed an excuse to visit her in public places like the senate. Subtle hand brushes, lingering hand shakes, and he practically ravished her with his eyes once right in front of Bail and Mon Mothma! Before, he would have followed her lead in public knowing he would eventually get rewarded in private. When had their dynamic change?

She loved Anakin deeply and truly no matter what phases or how he changed. She clung to who he was at his essence, at his very core. He would always be the man she fell in love with. Hopefully. The war had started to cause doubts. No, she would cast them aside for him. She vowed during that sunset on Naboo to be his faithfully. 

Padme’s soft fingertips began to glide over her husband's features. Her touch feather light like she was touching a delicate piece of art, hung at a grand museum with signs reading not to. Even in his sleep the changes were prominent. Padme always tried to wake up before her husband for a glimpse of him truly content. Since the war began, he seemed to always have a hard expression on and his body constantly tense. He relaxed marginally with her. But when he was asleep in their bed that was the only time his features would smooth out and a calm would cradle him. Or it used to be. Now his brow wrinkled in worries and his jaw was still set. This quiet moment she cherished was another casualty of the ongoing war. She touched his brow trying to sooth it like a painter trying to delicately blend pigments. She became unsatisfied as his wrinkles didn’t fade. Her fingertips traced down his temple to his cheek then to his jaw. Cupping lightly around it, she gently stroked it with her thumb hoping to loosen the tight muscles there.

Suddenly Anakin's whole body language changed. Padme’s breath caught in her throat as she was afraid she had awoken him. His eyelids began to twitch and his wrinkled brow turned to a scowl and his hold on her tightened. The hand at her waist began to ball into a fist. He was having a nightmare. She knew he suffered from them but never in her arms before. Logically she knew her presence alone couldn’t hold back his stress. Yet, she still ached. She desired nothing more than to be able to be his cure-all. 

Her traveling hand flew to stroke his hair, knowing how he adored it when she did so. He always melted under her touch, and the moment she began to play with his hair, well if humans could purr, he would. She was a strong orator in the senate but now as she began to whisper soft nothings to him in the dark. She felt like a child reading aloud to the class. It was unskilled and corny and he deserved more. She was a romantic, but forced herself to lock her heart away for the sake of her job. Anakin was a romantic, who wore his heart on his sleeve. He had always been so good with grand gestures and words of adoration so much so he was able to break in and steal her heart. 

A memory came to her. 

One morning they were laying in bed together, drinking their respective cups of caff and dreaming aloud together of the family they would one day build. She shared the lullabies her parents had sung and how much she desired to pass them down. Then delicately she asked him about the ones his mother must have sang. It was always a risk to ask about his mother. He always answered her but she knew it was painful for him. Sometimes it was a dull grief hidden behind his eyes but other times, the ones that broke her heart, his agony flowed freely from him. Tears spilling and voice cracking. Fortunately, this time it was the first. His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he began to sing in the odd tones of Huttese. She didn’t fail to notice he didn’t give an exposé like she had on when and how her parents sang to her. Later that night when the warmth of him had been sapped away slowly over the day since his departure, she asked 3-PO to help her learn not just the lyrics but the meaning and the cultural importance. She wanted to soak up as much of him as she could. Her husband was not at her side but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to get closer to him.

She began to quietly mimic the tones she had dutifully practiced with 3-PO. It was a harsh language to learn, harsh like the lands the Hutts controlled and harsh like their rule. But, the meaning was beautiful. The sentiment these simple tunes meant for children were profound and filled with love. The children that suffered under the Hutts rule were made to live harsh lives that aged them. They were exposed to too many cruelties like slavery and death at such young ages. These lullabies were made to soothe them. They were an ointment for the harsh whipping survived from their masters and life. The song she sang at the moment was about saying good-bye to your family with a heavy heart but hoping you’ll be reunited again in a better place. It was written by a mother who was taken away by the Hutts and not allowed direct communication with her children. She wrote the song from her prison cell hoping that the tune would carry and the drunks passed below her small window would sing the song and spread it hoping one day it would reach her children. Then they would know how much she loved them. The song itself started off by explaining the mother’s predicament and then the lyrics sang of how much she loved her children and hoped they would one day be reunited. 

The Nubian lullabies were a lot less explicit and more metaphorical. Her favorite was about the moon coming up every night to dance with their lover, the sea. It was about love finding a way to bring people together no matter the obstacles like distance and differences. Her lullabies and his lullabies were two different stories sung in different languages, but at the core, at the heart, they were the same. They were about love. 

She sang as she stroked through his hair and slowly. Degree by degree Anakin began to relax his muscles. His jaw slowly unclenched and his face smoothed out. It seemed the lullaby had been able to accomplish what her simple touch could not. Even though he was practically melted into the mattress from being so relaxed, she kept going as she was transfixed on this moment and was unwilling to break it. 

When finally her throat felt dry, she leaned to place a light kiss on his lips. She planned on snuggling up to him afterward and enjoying the lighten mood. Her plump lips just barely brushed against his cracked ones when she felt Anakin respond to her and try to deepen the kiss. Shocked, she pulled back to scrutinize him laughing disbelievingly.  _ He’d been awake? For how long?  _ But, most importantly she had gotten him that calm and relaxed while he was awake! Padme felt as triumphant as she felt after a good speech, no even better. Padme peered into his eyes. They were pale blue shining with mirth and adoration. Anakin’s hand came to cup her cheek gently. His calloused thumb brushing gently against her skin, she leaned into his touch and wondered if her eyes reflected the same.

“You’re my angel, Padme,” he whispered to her like a quiet prayer. Anakin closed the gap between them once more to kiss her.


End file.
